On April 9th, Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley are set to meet in the ring once again, a third fight in a series tied 1-1. The first bout saw Pacquiao control most of the early and middle rounds, with Bradley coming on late. Bradley was awarded a highly disputed split decision. In the second fight, Bradley loaded up with big shots in an attempt to avoid the judges, but fell short and lost unanimously. With the third bout just two months away and a new trainer in Bradley’s corner, fans and media debate on how much different a third bout could be.
In part 2 of my “On The Ropes” boxing radio interview with Freddie Roach, I discuss with him the upcoming trilogy bout with Timothy Bradley and why they decided on taking the rematch. I also get Roach’s views on Teddy Atlas being in the corner and what difference he thinks that could make in the result. Additionally, Freddie talks about Manny Pacquiao’s fight with Floyd Mayweather and if he could see a rematch happening. Here is what Freddie Roach had say.
Jenna J: Manny Pacquiao has a rematch with Tim Bradley on April 9th, can you talk a little about Pacquiao’s choice to fight Bradley for a third time?
Freddie Roach: Well, coming off the shoulder injury, he got a green light from the doctors but I think that he needed not to be in a real war or a real tough fight. We did say yes to the boy from Omaha(Terence Crawford) and I heard he said yes too, but I think Bob Arum may be protecting him a little bit right now because he may be his next ace in the hole. Crawford is a very good fighter, I like him a lot but I don’t feel that he has the experience to beat Pacquiao right now. We did say yes to that fight but they said it wasn’t available, so we went to Bradley.
Bradley will be a good test for Manny even though everyone tells me it’s his last pro fight and so forth, even Manny tells me that but I don’t really believe it. If Manny ever becomes the senator of his country, he will be so happy to be a senator defending his title. I hope that this isn’t Manny’s last fight — depending on how he does on the fight of course. I think he will dominate the fight, and it’s the first time in a long time that he told me he wants to knock his opponent out, so that’s good news for me.
Jenna J: Do you see any differences in Bradley with Teddy Atlas in his corner?
Freddie Roach: Well, he wasn’t in there against an in shape fighter that wanted to win the fight, his opponent just didn’t show up. I know that Teddy Atlas is not afraid of firemen or something like that, or not afraid of fire, and I don’t really give a shit about all his stories.
Let’s face it, Teddy knows when he’s on film and he goes into the acting mode. He’s quiet and then all of the sudden he puts his voice on and starts saying, “Oh we’re not afraid of firemen, we train in the heat.” What the fuck do you think we do? We are not scared of Teddy Atlas, he will bring nothing to the table, Bradley is Bradley.
Jenna J: In terms of Pacquiao’s last fight, how much different do you think the Mayweather bout would have been if Pacquiao’s shoulder had held up for the fight?
Freddie Roach: Pacquiao thinks he won the fight and a lot of people told me we won the fight at the airport the next day. A tremendous amount of people told me that we got robbed in that fight, black, white, no one was prejudiced about it, all races told me that Pacquiao won the fight. In my own mind I didn’t think he won the fight, but I didn’t re watch the fight because I was too disappointed in Manny’s performance.
The shoulder became a problem and he didn’t fight the fight that I think he can fight and I think he can fight a much better fight. I’m hoping a rematch happens, but one guy is retired already and one says this is his last fight, but we’ll see. At this point, I really can’t look forward to it because there’s not enough there to put the fight together again.
I’m dissapointed in Roach too, he didn’t say anything about the shoulder injury before the fight. I want to hear from Roach of what he really thinks of Pacquiao as a person after he retires. I’m also sure he hated every pinoy hanging around his wild gym during Pacquiao fights. Pacquiao is just surrounded by corrupt people and he doesn’t know he’s being used.
Kdd I think you lie to your own family. Are you dummy mad dog go and rewatch the match again
Roach thinks pacquiao lost because pacquiao didn’t perform upto his expectation.
But pacquiao landed more power shots and Floyd missed a lot or hit pacquiao gloves.. Watch the actual fight roach .. And not perception
Saw fight again yesterday and struggle to givemanny 3rds.
People lie Fred People Lie….
Because you don’t know what your watching .. If this fight was anywhere except Las Vegas pacquiao would’ve won ..pacquiao was the aggressor , landed the cleaner punches , landed power punches not jabs like Floyd.. And most of those jabs were blocked ..ring generalship .. Ppl judges the fight on perception and the pace not what actually happened ion the ring
Floyd sr ” Floyd you’re fighting scared !!! What you doin!!!”
Gentlemen…Had everyone forgot about the gayweather juicing. Certainly Manny won.
Gentlemen…Had everyone forgot about the Gayweather juicing? Surely Manny won the fight. Imagine Bayless and Gayweather joining hand to try to break Manny’s shoulder. Manny fought everyone that night.He fought Mayweather,Bayless,the Judges and the whole Las Vegas officials connected in that night fight.
Look at mayweather Sr’ reaction during and after the fight and wasnt happy with his son’s performance and even thought he was losing at one point. Roach re watches every fight of Pacquiao except that one. Why? I thought Pacquiao slightly lost a cloae fight because of biaswd commentary but after watching the replay Pacquiao clearly won. No doubt about that!
It seems that Pacquiao’s fame are now immaterial to all including his trainer Freddy Roach, What a ungrateful bunch. True color are now coming out. Manny should watched out, the sting of the snakes comes late of his career and he is surrounded by the greedy deadly American snake.
Manny Pacquiao has a colorful career in Professional Boxing,anyone who says differently in the likes of that sore loser as Paulie Mallinaggi . This girl Paulie who talks like a woman and boxed like woman . He
Say so much about Manny Pacquiao accused Manny of using Peds and so forth yet never shows proof except saying all his suspicions because Manny refuse to give him a fight.. Jealousy factor perhaps but it’s obvious this girl Paulie Mallinaggi who is a noted class B fighter, who got beaten by Manny’s sparring partner and ends up in a hospital indefinitely. What a loser.